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The $9-billion mine northeast of Fort McMurray, Alta., is expected to eventually produce 110,000 barrels of crude a day, doubling Kearl’s target capacity.

During peak construction, the Kearl expansion had a workforce of more than 5,000 people.

CIBC World Markets analyst Arthur Grayfer says the mine is starting up on budget and about a month earlier than expected.

The first phase of Kearl, also with a targeted 110,000-barrel-a-day production rate, started up more than two years ago.

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During the first quarter of this year, the first phase of Kearl averaged output of 95,000 barrels a day.

The initial development cost $12.9 billion — $2 billion more than expected as the company ran into delays transporting huge South Korean-made modules to the mine site.

Kearl is a partnership between Imperial and its U.S. parent, ExxonMobil Corp.

Canadian heavy crude prices weakened for the first time in four days after Exxon Mobil Corp. said production started ahead of schedule at its Kearl oil sands expansion.

Western Canadian Select’s discount to U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate widened 30 cents to $7.75 (U.S.) a barrel early Tuesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The crude’s price rose 23 cents to $52.30 (U.S.) a barrel.

The supply boost from Kearl comes after Cenovus Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. said they resumed operations at three oil sands sites that were shut last month because of a wildfire. Those closures helped shrink WCS’s discount to WTI to $7 on June 2, the narrowest in six years.

The discount is “going to have to widen out a little more to attract buyers,” Carl Larry, head of oil and gas for Frost & Sullivan LP, said by phone Tuesday.

The current discount doesn’t cover the $8.98 (U.S.) a barrel tariff to ship crude on Enbridge Inc. pipelines from Edmonton to Texas. U.S. imports of Canadian crude fell to 2.6 million barrels a day the week ended June 5, the lowest since January last year, U.S. Energy Department data show.

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